Portland, Seattle & Vancouver Recap & Travel Guide

Hi there! As I'm sure you've probably noticed (or possibly not), I've taken a lot of time to myself these past few months and haven been pretty MIA on the blog.  Last summer we spent a lot of it working on home projects, so this year we decided to lay off the projects and try to soak up this summer as much as possible. So although us being busy making memories this summer (and me training for a half marathon) has meant me be being MIA on the blog, I feel like I have been re-inspired and I’m excited to begin posting more often and get back to home projects! Before jumping back into home stuff, though, I thought I would share a recap and travel guide to our road trip to the Pacific Northwest that we got back from a week ago!    

On our Pacific Northwest road trip we went to Portland, OR the Oregon coast, Seattle and Vancouver and boy was it beautiful. I had been to all these places before when I was a teenager, except for the Oregon coast, but this was Paul's first time to all these cities so it was exciting exploring the cities with him  as an adult and finding our own favorite spots. 

Keep reading to see what our favorite places were in each city! 

PORTLAND

We started our road trip in Portland because that’s where my husband was participating in a Spartan Race, so we didn’t get to see a lot but here were some of the places we went to and enjoyed.

-       Riverwalk on Willamette River & bridges & and the weekend markets along it.

-       Voodoo Doughnuts

-       Blue Star Donuts
-       Fried Eggs I'm In love (ate breakfast there twice it was SO good) 

-       Portland City Grill Brunch (on the 30^th floor and overlooks city)

-       Japanese Garden (Didn’t go there but wish we had because my family says it's beautiful).

OREGON COAST – Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach

After we left Portland we headed along the Oregon Coast, which was GORGEOUS and well worth the added drive on our way to Seattle.   We stopped at Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock, and while there we ate at the Pelican brewery, which I'd definitely recommend. 

Thanks for the photobomb, sir... 

WASHINGTON COAST

We stopped randomly along the road on the way up to Sequim, WA to take in the beautiful views. 

WASHINGTON COAST – Crescent Lake, Olympic National park

Before heading to Seattle we went to Crescent Lake which was in the Olympic National Park. It was stunning, and had the water been a little calmer and the weather a little warmer we would have rented kayaks from the Lake Crescent Lodge. 

FERRY TO SEATTLE 

Strangely enough, taking the ferry over Seattle was one of Paul and mine's favorite part of our trip. It was such a cool way to arrive to a city and be able to see the entire Seattle skyline. 

SEATTLE: SPACE NEEDLE

You can't be a tourist in Seattle without seeing the Space Needle. 

SEATTLE: PUBLIC CENTER MARKET

This is also a must stop in Seattle. Our favorite stops were: 

 - Flowers 

- Dailey Dozen Donuts 

- Jack's Fish Spot 

The flowers were stunning and so SO affordable, like $10 - $15 for a huge gorgeous bouquet. I joked with Paul that if we lived in Seattle I'd expect flowers weekly at this price;) 

In Seattle we also had a lot of great food, some of our favorite spots were: 

- Serious Pie

- Bell and Whete 

- We had our first Vietnamese food at Vinason Pho & Grill. We saw all the locals eating there at lunch so we just had to try it and it was great! 

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VANCOUVER: GROUSE MOUNTAIN

Grouse Mountain is 20 minutes north of downtown Vancouver and is a great way to the entire city. We were planning on zip lining on the mountain but tickets were sold off, so my recommendation would be to buy tickets before hand! 

VANCOUVER: GRANVILLE ISLAND MARKET  

I'm so glad that I came across Granville Island when searching for things to do in Vancouver, because this was our favorite place in Vancouver and one of the best things we did on our entire trip. To get to the island you just have to take a 4 minute Ferry ride, so it's really convenient to get to. There were so many delicious places to get food from, and  it was super affordable especially because it was all in Canadian dollars and the US dollar is currently worth more. (Side not: we had fun clothes shopping in Vancouver for that reason too:))

VANCOUVER: STANLEY PARK   

 I like to think of Stanley Park as the Central Park of Vancouver. We had a few hours to spare before our red eye flight home so we enjoyed walking around the park and taking in the pretty views!

Overall we had an amazing trip, and after seeing how beautiful Vancouver was we hope to explore more of Canada in future summer vacations. For now though, I'm just happy to be home and start getting back into my projects and blogging, so stay tuned!